Artificial Intelligence foundational pillar in India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat: Vaishnaw

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday chaired a strategic convening of industry leaders and global academicians, policymakers and technology experts to articulate India’s AI priorities especially for the Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MET) ecosystem with a strong focus on adoption, skills development and inclusive growth.

At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, this convening was curated by NAMTECH under the leadership of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). It brought together academicians from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), and other prominent universities alongside C-suite executives from industry such as from Microsoft India, Dell Technologies, Cisco India, Hitachi India, Tata Electronics, Rockwell Automation, Palo Alto Networks, PayPal, and Intel among others.

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The industry-academia-government discussion featuring leading industry and academic leaders highlighted AI as a foundational enabler of productivity, competitiveness and innovation across India’s industrial sectors, aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

This convening builds on the momentum of the Industry-Academia Roundtable held in May 2025 at Bharat Mandapam, which underscored the need for collective action to enable India’s industrial transformation. Consequently, the Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MET) platform is being envisaged – convened and catalysed by NAMTECH – to bring together industry, academia, and government in a shared governance and execution model, and place manufacturing at the core of India’s accelerated growth and decarbonization agenda.

The event also marked the launch of the White Paper Concept on “AI for Manufacturing, Engineering Technology (AI-MET)”, by the hon’ble Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw. The White Paper Concept presents a strategic framework for embedding AI across manufacturing and associated value chains to drive productivity, sustainability and global competitiveness. It outlines a process for putting together coordinated pathways for industry, academia, and policymakers for embedding AI across India’s MET ecosystem.

Speaking at the event, Vaishnaw said: “Artificial intelligence is a foundational pillar in India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat. By integrating AI across Manufacturing Engineering Technology, we can enhance productivity, strengthen competitiveness, and unlock new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.”

“Our focus is on building an inclusive AI ecosystem that empowers enterprises and MSMEs alike, while preparing India’s workforce for the future. Initiatives such as the AI-MET White Paper reflect the kind of collaborative, mission-driven approach needed to translate technological capability into outcomes on the ground,” he said

“I am happy that NAMTECH has taken the lead in convening industry, academia and policymakers towards this shared national objective. My request to NAMTECH would be to use this opportunity to develop the next level of talent that can enable India to emerge as a major manufacturer of precision equipment,” Vaishnaw said.